A man's son suffers, and he suffers worse every year. A stranger offers him a cure that he cannot accept. Told that his son will die soon, he journeys to save his son's life. A woman is caught in adultery, the penalty for which is death by stoning. Men burst in on her are manhandling her through the streets. She thinks that they are taking her to kill her, but instead they carry her up into the Temple. A woman's daughter has a frightening illness. She hears about a miracle worker. She goes to him, but she is dismayed at his response to her. A man was healed many years ago, after he had been paralysed for 38 years. He gives his testimony in front of the Roman general who has shattered Jerusalem. These stories, or parts of them, might sound familiar. They come from the New Testament Gospels. This collection of stories reverently imagines the backgrounds and subsequent lives of twelve of the people we meet in the Gospels - people who met Jesus in the First Century. The ambition of this book is to refresh people's wonder about these amazing, puzzling, beautiful stories.